Richtofen's Grand Scheme
two achievements, three parts and the only easter egg in the game that ends with the earth on fire. it also asks you to have finished two other maps first.
- players
- 2
- solo
- not possible alone
- difficulty
- time
- 45 minutes to 2 hours
- reward
- a death machine after part one, and all eight perks for the rest of the game for everybody by the end
the time, and a rating of "medium", come from Moon Main Quest at COD Zombies Guides. the pips are our own estimate, scaled against every guide here.
the shape of this one
before you start
- two players or morein Black Ops, everything after the first part needs company. the first part alone is fine solo
- somebody in the lobby who has finished both Ensemble Cast and Time Travel Will Tellone person is enough, and it has to be on this account and this game. this is the requirement that quietly ends most attempts, and both sources lead with it
- a
Hackeroff the wall in the labs. two separate steps are built on it - a
Wave Gunfrom the box, and needed for exactly one shot in the whole quest - a
Quantum Entanglement Devicefrom the box, twice, and only after the first part is done - a
Gersh Devicefrom the box, twice, and only after the first part is done
not required, but it helps
- crawlersno air, an astronaut that teleports you, and several steps that want you standing still
the steps
four terminals in a row by the cliff, on the
Olympiaside. left to right they are red, green, blue, yellow.they flash a colour and you press that terminal. then two, then three, up to five. green flashes and they switch off when you finish it; red means start again.
tipthis and the sphere below do not care which one you do first, so whoever is not on the terminals can be moving the sphere.
on the second floor, on the wall left of the stairs up to the third, near the
Bowie Knife, there are four dim switches. hack one for 500 points to start the clock.eight white panel boxes are spread over the three floors, and four of them are lit green at any time. hack all four within sixty seconds. each one buzzes, louder as you get near it.
the second source counts the eight by floor: three on the first, two on the second, three on the third.
then go back to the four switches and press all four quickly, straight down the line. they all pulse red, and the middle of the vril interface on the front of the pyramid sinks in.
you only get this wrong oncemissing the minute costs you another 500 points to start over, every time.
let excavator Pi break into tunnel 6, then take the hacker to the excavator terminal in spawn and hack it. the sphere is now on the ground in tunnel 6, near the
M16.knife it to start it moving. it floats to the satellite dish on top of the receiving area, and that is where the
Wave Guncomes in: one shot brings it down and it heads for tunnel 11.it gets stuck in the ceiling above a barrier next to
Stamin-Up. splash damage frees it, a grenade or aRay Gunshot. keep knifing it along and keep the doors open until it reaches the plate in front of the pyramid.tipif it stops, knife it or shoot it again. it is not lost, it is waiting.
a glass tube rises out of the floor. kill twenty five zombies close to it and a red stream leaves each body and goes into the ceiling. the range is short, so this is done standing on top of it.
when it is full, use the switch on the right wall. the pyramid opens, Samantha is inside, everyone gets a death machine for ninety seconds, and that is Cryogenic Slumber Party done.
tipnukes and astronaut kills count towards the twenty five.
teleport to Area 51 and look right of the teleporter: a beam structure with hexagonal plates on it. throw a grenade to knock them loose, and your character says so when it works. then throw a Gersh Device, and the plates come to the teleporter and travel back with you.
this can be picked up at any point, including before the quest starts, so take it the first time you are in the labs for anything else.
a long curved silver wire, on the floor, leaning on a wall or a crate, or inside any of the desks the
Hackercan spawn in. any of the three floors.it can also turn up outside near the teleporter entrance, by the crates right of the door out, or in the spawn room by the excavator switch, but those three are rare. picking it up puts it in your inventory.
the plates are lying near
Quick Revive. throw a Quantum Entanglement Device at them. whatever the QED decides to do, the plates end up on the right side of the room, standing upright in two brackets on a small machine beside a computer.put the vril device between the plates and use the wire to join the two machines. then Richtofen, and only Richtofen, presses use on the computer to the left, over and over. typing means it is working.
keep pressing until a voiceover starts and let it finish. the screen goes red, green, red, green, and the device starts glowing. take it back.
back at the open pyramid there are now four tubes, and each one wants twenty five kills beside it, same as before. Samantha screams and shakes the screen the whole way through.
with all four full, put the charged vril device into the slot in front of the pyramid. Richtofen and Samantha change places, and the player who is Richtofen keeps all eight perks for the rest of the game.
you only get this wrong oncethe device cannot be taken back out after this.
Maxis wants out now. the same colour game, three more times, and it is harder: it opens on three colours, then four, then five.
a rocket rises out of the gap for each one you finish.
throw a QED straight at the vril interface symbol on the front of the pyramid. the sphere comes loose and lands over by the simon says machine.
throw a Gersh Device next to it there, and it goes.
Maxis says his piece, a countdown starts, and the three rockets leave for earth. about thirty to forty seconds later the surface burns, and it stays burnt: go back to Area 51 afterwards and look up.
everyone who was not Richtofen gets all eight perks now, for good. that is Big Bang Theory, and the end of the Black Ops story.
these can be done in any order
arrow keys or j and k to move, d to tick this one off.
all of it, done.
what that got youa death machine after part one, and all eight perks for the rest of the game for everybody by the end
next on this mapComing Homeor pick something else
where this came from
- Moon Main QuestCOD Zombies Guides, read 2026-09-07
- Richtofen's Grand SchemeCall of Duty Wiki, read 2026-09-07
more on Moon
- Coming Homesongthree teddy bears in helmets. the one song on Moon you go looking for, on the map where the crew burn the earth.
- Re-Damnedsongone computer in the lab, and a remake of the song the whole mode opened with back in Nacht der Untoten.
- Pareidolia 8-bitsongShangri-La's song, played back through a computer in the labs as if it were coming out of an arcade cabinet.
- Coming Home 8-bitsongthe same song as the teddy bears, eight bits wide, out of a terminal at the far end of a tunnel.
- Nightmaresongthe one song on this map you cannot go and switch on. it is what the end of the quest sounds like.